Alok Pandey obtained his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree from Banaras Hindu University and M.Sc. degree in Biotechnology from The M. S. University of Baroda. He received his Ph.D. from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad in 2010. During his Ph.D. in Dr. Ramesh V Sonti’s laboratory, he worked on Rice - Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) pathosystem. His Ph.D. study represents the first report describing a role for feoB (encodes major bacterial ferrous iron transporter) in virulence of any plant-pathogenic bacterium and the first functional characterization of a siderophore biosynthetic gene cluster in any xanthomonad. As a Post Doctoral Fellow at CSIR-CCMB, he characterized multiple genes for their role in Xoo pathogenesis and microbial physiology. He joined CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, as the DST-INSPIRE Faculty in 2014. He performed his duty as Principal Investigator & Research Scientist to develop and lead independent research in the field of Microbial Genetics, Molecular Plant Pathology, Plant-Microbe Interaction, and Plant Microbiome.  He is the recipient of several fellowships of national and international repute such as DBT (Govt. of India) Scholarship (2001), CSIR-NET-JRF/SRF (2003), CSIR-Foreign Travel Grant (2010), United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development (BARD) travel fellowship (2012), India Bioscience - Young Investigator Meeting Travel Grant (2016), DST-SERB International Travel Grant-2016 (not availed) and DBT (Govt. of India) - International Travel Support-2016 (DBT/CTEP/02/201601134). He was awarded Young Scientist Award (Life Sciences) (2011) from Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (currently Telangana Academy of Sciences), Young Scientist Award (2014) from the Association of Microbiologist of India (AMI), DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award (2014) from Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Award-2015. He holds the membership of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (IS-MPMI). He has presented research papers at several national & international scientific meetings and has publications in journals of high repute. His areas of specialization are Microbiology, Molecular Plant Pathology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, Plant Immunity, Biotechnology, and Genomics.